Angelic Layer Neogen
by Taeniaea
Summary: Revolutionary changes have been made to the layer, and of course enthusiasts have flocked to them like moths to a light. But not all is as it seems to some. And to some others, all they know, about themselves, and others.. may be a lie. R&R. LongHiatus.
1. First Days

**Disclaimer- Neither me nor my brother own Angelic Layer. Or Chobits. Or anything else that may come into this story but the Original Characters and plot.**

_AN (Taeniaea)- This is a project written between me and my brother, who most of you will know as 'Rimshooter.' Rimshooter and I apologize for any OOC in this story, as it is our first Angelic Layer fan-fiction. You won't see this story on Rimshooter's list of stories because we decided to put it on my profile alone. He didn't want anyone to mix up the story, or something like that._

_AN (Rimshooter [Ignoring everything Taeniaea said.])- Well, there are some things you need to know before reading this. And to Saint X, if you read this, I tried to be as original with the following as possible. I didn't want you to think I was copying you, the idea had been floating around in my head a while to do this, I even have a role-play site like this, and just noticed your story. SO I modified it to try not to look like a rip-off. _

_**T0 the point, you need to read what I'm about to right people.**_

1- Angels are now allowed weapons, but enhanced weapons are prohibited, e.g. the electric whip and anything else with an outside force helping. This does not count skills, e.g. Ranga's Dance of Death, Rolling Thunder, if you happen to have a weapon to enhance the skill it is allowed.

2- Angels now have a limit as to how much they can use special abilities, as in there is a compensation for using it. There is now a bar that reaches up to fifty points to spend, the layer automatically assesses strength of the skill and tallies off points.

3- You may add any special features to your angel, such as wings, jet packs, etc. so long as they do not violate the first adjustment.

4- You may synthesize a new weapon/special features kit to your angel at any time. There is a default selection of 25 (See Tournament Guide) as well as the ability to make your own, via placing the contents, or data about them, into a special case which is hooked up to the layer, akin to a memory card.

5- All Angels from this date on have hyper-mode as default skill, it is optional, of course, to use.

6- The deus is alloted a 'back-up' angel that they can use if their angel is heavily damaged, but not defeated. They may only swap angels during intermission between rounds, you may only have one back-up and cannot use any special equipment (for simplicity's sake to be called SE Gear from now on) that was meant for the previous angel, a different 'memory card' is required.

Chapter 1- 'First Days'

-I-

Piffle Princess-

Keishin sighed as he approached the Piffle Princess, remembering how he got dragged into this.

_"Happy Birthday Kei-chan!" His best friend, Miyouri had all but shouted in a sing-song voice._

"What do you mean, my birthday's next month."

"Er.. then happy early birthday!" Miyouri shouted, thrusting a red box into his hands, it had a picture of a winged egg on it.

_"What is this?"_

"It's Ange-"

"I know, why give it to me." Keishin cut her off.

"Well, you're really good with computers and stuff, and they just released new advanced software for the angels, so I was wondering if you'd be interested."

"I see, you want me to give it a test-run don't you."

"Well..eheheh.."

He went inside and bought the rest of the parts he needed.(1) He then went home, which was only a few blocks away.

-Keishin's Room-

Keishin didn't even bother with the instructions and hooked up the scanner and monitor he had bought, annoyed he couldn't use his own computer. He went to the faucet and turned on the water before opening the egg so its liquid content leaked out to the drain, before turning the water off and looking at his, for lack of a better term, doll.

He looked through the various hair clippings and decided on a dark-turquoise, which he cut and combed with expert skill into slicked back style with a long ponytail, and a few bangs beside his angels closed eyes. Next he placed the angel on the scanner when he was satisfied and began setting his parameters, "Let's see.." Strength, Speed, Stamina. Hmm.." He decided on putting two points in speed, two in stamina, and one in strength. He then clicked the 'proceed' button which, instead of the 'Name your Angel' screen Misaki saw, was a large box list with a single thing on the list-'Hyper Mode'. Ignoring it he clicked the 'New Ability' tab and began customizing it until he had used up all five ability slots. Afterwards he was confronted with a window telling him to give his angel a name.

He thought briefly and typed in '**Teramora'**.

He now had an angel, so he read through a basic manual and started constructing some gear for it. First off he used the monitor's abilities, after hooking it up to a memory card, to build a small pole with a brass end, in reality when he pressed the brass end, he would have a two-foot long steel baton, in angel standards, and it doubled, while compressed as an electronic shield. This was because four emitters on its sides projected the shield using the Layer's energy.

Next he built a set of shoulder pads with a pair of polygonal and metallic wings on its back, being they were normal, but with unusually straight and pointed feathers, that came all the way down from the top of the wing. After that, Keishin built a set of boots which gave him the ability to thrust air from them, making for increased jump-time and speed, as he put a pair of wheels on the end in a fashion they could be deployed and removed, he hid them in circular capsules with small wings on them.

And for the finishing touch, he built a cannon that could be strapped to one of his arms, while still being light, that fires concentrated energy from the layer. He classified this as a skill.

Finally, he used his own skill to craft an outfit for Teramora. It was a rather simple tench coat with leggings under it. The coat was a button-up, but the buttons veered off to his right shoulder about three-fourths of the way up. Over Teramora's 'heart' was a tag that stated his name. The coats sleeves were simple short-sleeves, and under them was what appeared be a long-sleeved white shirt. He sported some black fingerless gloves, by the way his coat and leggings are both a slightly lighter shade of turquoise than his hair, and a visor quite similar to the one Keishin would be wearing, only it was green and polarized. For shoes he wore simple tight-fitting combat boots, which came with the kit.

After proving many stereotypes of him wrong, Keishin went to the cyber café in the Piffle Princess and rented a table to practice on, starting with the basic movement, then a timing exercise, and last but not least, he plugged his memory card in and started practicing with his equipment, until he had gotten the hang of it. After which, he posted a note on the table that read 'looking for challenger'.

Meanwhile, a girl entered the Piffle Princess, her name was Seimei Iyoku.

She had ice cold violet eyes and darker brown hair; she also had on the right side of her face some of it that is dyed dark violet. It was shoulder length. The rest of her hair reaches half way to her waist on the other side. She was slim, and wore a violet shirt and a pair of dark blue jeans.

Seimei walked into the Piffle Princess's training zone to use her Angel for the first time and look for her friend, Misaki, there. She walked in and sighed when saw someone by the only the free table, so she walked over to him.

Keishin noticed he, "Evening, let's just get this over with please." With that Teramora shifted into a fighting stance and his gear appeared, excluding the cannon.

Seimei did not say anything at all as she gave him a cold look, and threw Chiisai Kage, her angel, to the layer to start the fight.

Chiisai wears a black cloak with a hood, the cloak pulls over her shoulders. Under this she wars a black jacket with silver Chinese dragons running along its long sleeves, which are relatively snug fits. She has on a silver fingerless glove on her right hand, and a black leather glove with silver, cloth fingers on her right. She has a chain belt with a crude bronze tiger buckle. Her pants are slim, silver denim jeans and she wears slim, black leather boots with no high heels. Her cloak has a silver, Chinese dragon circling around into a striking pose.

Chiisai Kage landed on her feet, if a bit awkwardly.

"Alright then.. Angelic Fight!", As Keishin signaled, Teramora jumped over Chiisai and unfolding his wings, while extending his baton and gliding towards her at incredible speeds, before revealing it to be a feint as he swapped the baton for his cannon and fired the blast point blanc, its skill paralyzing everything it touched as Keishin's skill bar dropped by 20 percent. After firing he landed and kicked his thrusters in reverse at full speed even before the smoke cleared.

While they were fighting a group of people gathered for inexplicable reasons, within them was Miyouri, and just entering the café was Misaki who noticed the commotion and moved to watch, recognizing Seimei instantly but not saying anything, lest she cost her friend the match.

-I-

When Seimei was growing up, she lived in Wakayama neighboring Misaki. Shuuko and Seimei's mother were close friends, and so their daughters reflected that. Seimei was bullied in school, until she decided to take Martial Arts lessons and stand up for herself. She joined the ken do club about the time she started getting the hang of Martial Arts. Her mother died in a car accident on the way home during rush hour with Seimei in the back. Seimei survived, after two months of being in a coma. After this she stayed with Misaki and her grandparents until Misaki moved to Tokyo with her aunt, Shouko. Seimei moved a year later after getting into Eriol Academy.

-I-

Chiisai Kage dodged Teramora's move by some miracle and started to move with great speed while dodging and lashing out in various kicks. She used Shadow Kick, a proverbial rip-off of Rolling Thunder, on him.

Teramora swapped his cannon for his baton and activated his shield, which blocked most of the kick's force, he then used his thrusters to speed up and over her, as well as around her until he was litterally circling her in a kind of dome. Teramora then extended his baton and started attacking her with rapid, stinging blows in numerous places with his baton.

On Seimei's end, Chiisai Kage was dodging Teramora's blows by millimeters while also getting hurt badly and trying to kick him. She managed to get out of Teramora's grasp, with a beating, and used Shadow Kick on him again.

"Eh? You really want this to get serious.." Keishin sighed.

Teramora sped backwards to the center of the layer, as he was pushing Chiisai toward the edge a millimeter at a time. Teramora took his baton and drew a circle with it, silver light tracing the outline for him. He then pointed it at Chiisai, " _Touketsu Chouseki_" And on cue a storm of ice shards surged out of th circle as easily as water, while Teramora's Skill Bar dropped 10 points and began to decrease steadily, Teramora waved his baton like a wand in a vague sphere and the ice surrounded Chiisai, before closing in on her like death's cold, yet welcoming embrace. The ice closed in, draining Chiisai's health at a remarkable rate of ten per second, until an announcer appeared from nowhere.

"Time's up, Draw!"

Teramora seemed to look a bit disappointed and stopped his attack, before jumping out of the layer into Keishin's extended palm, which he lowered to his lap. "Good game and all.. suppose I'll see you another time. Keishin said as he made his way to the exit.

On the way Miyouri intercepted him, "Ahck! When did you get here?"

"Since about forty minutes ago. Nice fight! Too bad you ran out of time.."

"Just save it."

Keishin stated flatly as he left, heading home.

Meanwhile, Misaki approached Seimei, "Hey Seimei-chan!" Misaki cheered as she reached her old friend.

Seimei picked Chiisai Kage up from her position on the layer floor. Upon seeing Misaki, her ice cold violet eyes became warm and friendly as she said "Hi Misaki-chan!"

"That looked like a good fight! Is your angel okay?" Misaki asked, switching from cheery to worried almost impossibly quickly.

Seimei looked down at her feet and replied, "I don't know Misaki-chan!"

"Ah, that's okay, come on, let's go see Hatoko to get her fixed!" Misaki cheered.

"Wait Misaki-chan, who is Hatoko?" Seimei cried out while Misaki dragged her to a small child practicing in a corner.

"She's a friend, and my second from last year. Don't worry!"" Misaki said as she reached the table and stopped abruptly, waiting for Hatoko to finish, accidentally jerking Seimei forward from the sudden stop.

Hatoko finished in record time and noted Misaki.

"Hi Misaki, who's this?" Hatoko said, gesturing to Seimei.

Before Seimei could respond Misaki cut in, "This is my old friend, Seimei-chan, from Wakayama."

Seimei looked coldly down at the small child, giving a cold as ice look to Misaki before speaking an equally frozen voice "Hello Hatoko."

"Eheheh.. Well Hatoko, could you look at my friend's angel, she just got out of a nasty fight." Misaki asked, a bit nervous with the numbing aura Seimei was creating tickling her.

"Sure, can I see her?"

Seimei's icy, violet eyes softened up some when she saw that she was making Misaki a bit nervous. She gave Chiisai Kage over to Hatoko to be fixed saying, "Sorry Misaki-chan!"

"Why are you apologizing Seimei-chan?"

"Well.. I'm making you nervous." Seimei replied.

"Hmm, there isn't too serious of damage, she's just battered, a few minutes in the scanner should fix her up, good as new." Hatoko replied after examining the angel before returning it to Seimei, "Well, it's getting late, I'd better head home, see-ya!" And with that Hatoko left the room.

"Well, it _is _getting late, see you tomorrow Seimei-chan!" And Misaki followed suit, along with a large amount of bystanders, who also noticed it was getting late.

Seimei yelled, "Ok then Misaki-chan, see ya!" She then picked up her angel and left, heading home.

-I-

Footnote(s)-

1- Miyouri didn't have enough money to buy everything else because she has a poor allowance.


	2. A Day In Eriol Academy

**Disclaimer- Neither of us owns Angelic Layer. Or Chobits. Or anything else that may come into this story but the Original Characters and plot.**

_AN (Rimshooter)- Taeniaea doesn't have anything to say this run, so I'll just start the chapter. Oh, and if you noticed Chobits in the disclaimer, you probably won't see it for a while, if ever. It's just there because of the way this story is being written._

Chapter 2- A Day at Eriol Academy

-I-

Keishin sat next to the windows on the left side of the room, behind Ryou. Behind him is Miyouri who was trying to get his attention, much to his displeasure, as he was researching different Angelic Layer players.

"Kei-chan, Kei-chan... KEEEIIII-CHAAAAAAAN!" Miyouri persisted.

"What!" asked an aggravated Keishin.

"Are you going to try for the Nationals?"

"Maybe."

"You should, you're good enough!"

"I'll think about it." Keishin concluded, keeping his eye on the screen.

The bell rang, dismissing class. Keishin left the room last, packing up his laptop. Miyouri got up and started following him to the computer club's room.

While walking on her way over to the Kendo club, Seimei crossed paths with Keishin. She started to say something to him but he ignored her as he walked to computer club with his friend Miyouri following him, rather craftily. She continued to the Kendo club as Keishin entered the small building that was Computer Club.

"Ok Keishin, we've got a new job for you."

"What is it?"

"We need you to hack the mainframe for Angelic Layer and get Chihiro here registered with an Angel Card."

"Oh, and what do I get out of it." Keishin asked nonchalantly.

"We're willing to pay you depending on the difficulty of the task. We already have you section ready." The club head was referring to a 'storage closet' in the back of the room, which was actually where Keishin pulled off most his hacking runs.

"Whatever, I left one of my memory cards in the storage closet, be right back." And with that Keishin went to work breaking through the dozens of firewalls the Angelic Layer company had put up, his hands were a blur of movements as he worked at his job. He succeeded, erased all signs of his presence, and downloaded the necessary information as proof to a disc, akin to an angelic layer memory card, only it had a coded note on it, 'Show this to the clerk, she'll be forced to give a card to you.' "Ah, there it is." He stated, pretending to be frustrated, he walked past the club head, skillfully swapping the memory cards so the onlooker wouldn't notice, while the club head slipped him a note 'Payment's tomorrow, same time.'

"Later guys.", Keishin said as he left the building.

On the way out, Keishin saw Seimei practicing Kendo."Wait.. you!"

She heard Keishin yell "Wait!" at her and she stopped practicing her Kendo. Seimei looked over at him, "Hmm? Keishin?"

"I didn't know you went to school here." Keishin continued as several students, oblivious to the predicament.

"Well I do go to school here, but I'm new." Seimei said, her tone cold, her violet eyes dark and unwelcoming. She was holding her arms while looking at him a little too coldly thinking, '_He could have hurt my angel badly_', and thinking about it only made her feel madder and more upset.

"I see, now do me a favor and drop the act." Keishin replied.

Seimei 's eyes softened up a bit, but they were still a little cold as she said, "Look I don't know you,so I am sorry I got mad at you! I act that way to everyone who I don't know!"

"Do you even have a _reason_ to dislike me?", said an irritated Keishin.

"Look it's not that I dislike you; it's only that I really don't know you yet." Seimei said, softly her arms down at her sides. She looked sorry for getting mad at him.

"Then what's with the, 'I wish I was anywhere but next to this guy', look?"

"You remind me of my mother, she was a computer tech." Seimei said softly, while looking down and not at him anymore. Her arms were still down at her sides.

"There's a difference between a hacker and a technician. Mainly, technicians repair what we hackers break." Keishin replied heatedly, "And besides, that's no reason to be hateful. Look, I was just wondering if you'd care to finish that little match of ours?"

"She was a hacker when she was a teen." Seimei replied before saying,"Yes, I want to finish our match."

"Good, meet you at the Piffle Princess." Keishin said, leaving school grounds as Seimei went back to her practice.


	3. Re Match

**Disclaimer- Neither of us owns Angelic Layer, or Chobits, or anything else that may appear in this story but the plot and our original characters.**

_AN (Rimshooter)- This chapter was accidentally skipped and has been inserted into the story late. Please forgive me and Tae for any inconvenience._

Keishin arrived at the piffle princess, a few minutes after school was out. He rented a table for a few hours, before placing Teramora in the layer, and running through his usual routine, and something else, but he left that for others to discover. He placed a note on the other side that said 'Reserved', and continued practicing. All while waiting for Seimei.

Aforementioned girl had arrived at the Piffle Princess two hours after school was out. She then looked over the area and saw Keishin had rented a table and was practicing on it, so she went over to him looking sorry about her lateness.

"It's okay, I rented this thing for the next five hours after school was out. Ready?"

Seimei's violet eyes gained a soft and warm look in them, and she said, "Yeah I'm ready." Before saying softy, "Fly on the Shadows of the Past Chiisai Kage Angel Descend!"

She then threw Chiisai Kage on to the layer, where she landed in a fighting stance on her feet.

"Good." Keishin smiled, as Teramora performed a bow, his left hand open over his lower-right abdomen, while his right was behind him over the inverse of his left. Teramora then moved out of he bow and summoned his button, which he lowered to an angle, holding it with his right hand, and extended it, before raising it into the air and lowering it to point at Chiisai Kage, "Angelic Fight!"

With that Teramora activated his boosters and rushed Chiisai, to perform the same 'dance of death' as in their last match.

"Don't lose now, I want to show you my new trick."

Seimei sent a signal to her angel she, Chiisai jumped into air before and shows that she had a pair violet of wings that which she used to fly high into the air to get away from Teramora's dance of death. She then sent a beam made of wind at him called, simply, Wind Beam.

Teramora shook it off and used his baton, tracing a glowing silver circle, inside which he made a cross. " _Migoto en hari_" Instead of a torrent of ice, this time the air shimmered with sparks and dazzling shards of light that seemed to drift everywhere, like snow, while Teramora merely stood still, falling to his knees.

Chiisai took this as an advantage to rush and us Shadow Kick on him, only for the Shards floating around to form a compact wall, which absorbed the shock of Chiisai's blow, before vanishing and molding into a glass cast of Chiisai.

The clone took up a fighting stance as more shards drifted through the air.

Seimei sent a signal to her angel and Chiisai jumped, using her violet wings to fly higher and higher into the air. She then sent four Wind Beams at Teramora, each in a different side of him.

The fake Chiisai saw them coming, somehow, and intercepted the blasts, the wind assaulting her to no effect. After which the glass formed a crude parody of Chiisai's wings for her, which she rushed to fly up and rush her counterpart, her hands morphing into blades. She exploded into a flurry of movement, slashing and hacking at her foe, or where she had been. All while Keishin seemed to become gradually more and more fatigued.

Chiisai was still the air using her violet wings to fly higher. She used her ability, chi, to make a giant hammer,which she used to hit the fake Chiisai Kage right out of air, shattering her. Seimei then had Chiisai send Wind Beam at Teramora.

Keishin would have cursed, but instead focused solely on moving Teramora, who complied d a second too late and received a blow, which grazed his visor and knocked it off, revealing Teramora's eyes were pure white. Despite this they seemed to become filled with fury as the glass stopped falling, hovering in mid-air, before it formed a giant angel, which looked like Teramora, who was inside it. The Giant Teramora drew a large sword, and smiled as if mocking Chiisai, the ting was so huge it caused half the café to look at the fight.

The angel then grabbed Chiisai, lifted her over his head, and tossed her violently to the ground while Keishin looked in astonishment. The Giant then proceeded to pummel her. Keishin ripped off his visor, shocked, but the angel kept attacking, until Chiisai had absolutely no health. After which, the layer shut down and Teramora fell, a stoic expression once more on his face.

Seimei was worried sick as she ran to pick Chiisai Kage up, but stopped and looked at the angel in astonishment while thinking, '_What happened to Chiisai Kage?_' because said was glowing black while she was still unconscious and **off** the layer.

Meanwhile, bystanders had gathered in throngs and were gaping at Keishin, who was gaping at his angel, which now rested peacefully in the center of the layer, next to a glowing Chiisai Kage. He would've continued to gape had Miyouri not approached him, "That was amazing Kei-chan, how did you do that?"

"I d-didn't."

"Whatever, don't deny it." She said as she gathered his angel, and ushered him out of the crowd.

Nearby, an esteemed, and highly eccentric scientist observed him. "Ogata, get the recording for that fight, I don't care how. If you don't, there'll be a penalty." He said as he made a threatening posture over his assistant.

"Y-yes sir."

Meanwhile Seimei was still very worried as she picked her angel up, while Chiisai Kage was still glowing black. She then went looking for Misaki, and Hatoko while thinking '_Maybe they can help me._'

Misaki happened to enter the cyber café, noticing Seimei wandering about aimlessly and approaching her, "Seimei-chan, what's wrong?"

Seimei showed Misaki Chiisai Kage, who was still glowing black."What the? Come on, let's take her to Hatoko-san." Misaki said and dragged Seimei away hurredly, only to bump into the back of a clerk, who turned around to reveal Ichaan.

"Hmm.. Oh what's this..?" He said, becoming excited quickly as he snatched Chiisai Kage and began examining her from all angles.

"What the who are you?!" Seimei yelled very coldly at the clerk examining her angel.

"Me? I'm Ichaan of course! And this is a very interesting doll you have here, for her to be able to continue using Hyper Mode after removal from the layer.. does she have an AAMS chip?"

"No." Misaki replied for Seimei.

"Then this is very interesting." A flash appeared in the room and Ichaan returned Chiisai Kage to Seimei, "Well I'll see you around." Was all he said before vanishing. Unknown to them, the flash obtained every scrap of data stored within Chiisai via a special laser, which hacked into Chiisai Kage, very similar to a wireless Internet connection.

Seimei was holding a glowing Chiisai Kage while looking at the spot where Ichaan vanished. She asked very softly almost too soft to hear, "Misaki what is Hyper Mode?"

Misaki put her finger on her chin before replying, "From what I understand it doubles, maybe triples your stats at the cost of HP." While looking up she noticed the clock, "Ekks! Mom will be home if I don't head back soon!" She ran our the door shouting, "Later Seimei-chan!"

Seimei wandered off, a little dizzily, and bumped into a clerk who gave a light chuckle and asked, "How may I help you?"

"Can you help me fix my Angel please?" Seimei said very softly to the clerk, before showing the clerk Chiisai Kage who had finally stopped glowing.

Seimei grabbed a hold of her head suddenly, using her free hand because it was started to feel very odd, and it was hurting her badly. With a single sound of surprise, she fell to the floor.

Surprised, the clerk caught her as she called out to the throng of people, "She just fainted! Call an ambulance!"

The ambulance arrived a few minutes later, and took Seimei to the hospital where she would stay for the next few weeks as the doctors performed a complex surgery.


	4. We're Going for a Field Trip

**Disclaimer- Neither of us owns Angelic Layer. Or Chobits. Or anything else that may pop up in this story aside from the plot and original characters.**

_AN (Rimshooter)- Taeniaea still doesn't have anything to say. _

_Dear Saint X,_

_Thanks for not criticizing us. Also, if you think that chapter was short, look at our usual!_

Chapter 3- We're going for a field trip.

Three days after the re-match, Keishin, Misaki, and the others were in their classroom.

"So we're going on a field trip?" It was Keishin who said it.

"Yep! Aparently the teacher wants us to visit a temple off by some backwater town she couldn't get a name for."

"Sounds fun." He replied sarcastically.

The class was silenced by the teacher, "Now you all know by now that Seimei Iyokou has been absent for a while now, and a few more know that she was in the hospital. Well, today she's returned." The teacher gestured to the door where Seimei was now standing. She was being very quiet and her violet eyes had a somewhat dull look to them, as she did not have any emotion on her face.

She was immediately assaulted by questions like, "What happened?", and "Were you sick." As well as the, "Did you get sent to the ER?" All of which she ignored until the incessant mob left, Keishin sighing at its initial formation, some things never changed.(1)

So when do we leave?" The question was directed at Miyouri, who replied, "Right about-" The bell rung early, "-now."

As the students and teacher filed out to the waiting bus, only Keishin, Miyouri, Misaki, and Seimei remained.

"What happened Seimei-chan?" This was Misaki.

Seimei still stood in the door way, only looking over at Misaki when her friend had asked her something. But she did not say a thing to her childhood friend, and she looked like she did not even know who Misaki was for a full minute, but before the conversation could get any further, the teacher came back in, "Please hurry up, you're going to miss the bus."

They grudgingly followed and loaded into the buses.

As the buses left Tokyo, the scenery changed drastically. The urban environment they were accustomed to became a deciduous forest, a cherry blossom tree appearing every now and then. The flowers were just blooming, the water just starting to flow, and the animals just leaving hibernation, it was a pleasant time of the year.

Keishin shrugged it all off as they eventually (after a few hours of transit) came to a city. It wasn't as urban as Tokyo, as its people were less wide spread, and there were not that many roaming the streets. In fact, they only saw two or three spread thin before the bus parked in a largely vacant parking garage, next to a traditional hotel.

"This is where we'll be staying, if you'll follow me, I'll show you to your rooms, we're staying in the second floor.." The teacher droned on about the town's history, which wasn't much, and showed them their promised rooms. Misaki, Keishin, and Miyouri were all next to each other in a row, and had a nice view of a pond with scattered sakura (cherry blossom) trees around it. Kotauro, Seimei, and Tomayo were opposite them. And on the floors above them were the other grades, Hatoko being directly over Keishin, on the top floor.

Unfortunately for her, as this was a traditional hotel, there were no elevators.

It was getting late, so most students (Including the majority of our favorites) decided to sleep the rest of the day off. All of them, but Seimei were asleep by now.

Seimei was in her hotel room, reading a book on the town's history while she was thinking about the girl who had spoken to her just before they left. '_I know her don't I_?'. Her violet eyes were dull still, but she had emotion on her face as she asked herself softly, "Why does my mind feel like it's in a deep fog."

A few minutes later, she fell asleep.

The next day Keishin yawned, got up, and stretched his legs before preparing himself a small breakfast and getting dressed. He still wore the uniform, or at least a variation. It was practically the same, only instead of there being a a blue ribbon with a crown on it on his arm, there were small, blue cloth pads on his shoulders, without crowns.

He then ventured into the halls, where the teacher met him at the door, before explaining it was time for the day to begin anyway, and waking the rest of his class up.

After waking the class up, she set them on a route for a nearby museum. Unknown to her, Keishin, Miyouri, and a few others parted with her and started exploring.

"I heard there's an old temple somewhere around here, they say that it's taken care of by a girl who lives in it alone."

"And your point is?", Keishin started to say, but was cut off by Miyouri.

"We should find it!"

"Why?"

"It's better than following the teacher isn't it?"

"True, come on, let's ask around."

Miyouri walked up to a nearby person, who was tending his ice-cream stall, "Excuse me, but you could direct me to the old temple?"

"Hmm? Oh, that's easy, go along the highway, to the east for about half a mile."

"I see, thanks!" She said in a cheery tone, walking off. She told Keishin the directions, and he gained a crestfallen look.

"We're walking half a mile along the freeway?"

"Well.. yeah. Come on!"

She started pulling Keishin along behind her.

After an exhausting transit, (for the out of shape computer hacker at least), the group finally spotted the temples stairs. Upon viewing from the road there was a mailbox, styled to look like a small shrine (which it dueled as). Then there were the steps, they winded up through the forest, a stark contrasting near-polished white, against the various greens and browns of a typical forest. They disappeared from sight about twelve steps up, where they rounded into the forest. Despite their being in the forest, they were remarkably well-kept, no leaves had fallen on them, no sticks littering them, or even grass growing through the cracks in the brick.

Sighing in exasperation Keishin started up them, with the rest following. After about one-hundred or so steps, and no end in site, he was nearly ready to give up, had Miyouri not started pulling him again.

Unknown to them, Seimei had been following them all along, looking at the long trek as extra training.

She walked up to them not looking tired at all and grab a hold of Keishin's other arm and started to help pull him up there with Miyouri. But she did not say anything to them.

"Hey- what the?"

"Stop complaining we're almost there!" Miyouri shouted playfully.

And sure enough the end of the steps was in sight. At their summit they were greeted by a temple gate, with a large bell on the left side, and a sign on the other saying 'Ring Before Entering'

Miyouri did the honors, pulling down hard on the string of the bell, sounding a dull throb of metal beating metal.

A few seconds later, a young girl appeared in the doorway with a bright, curious expression on her face. She had a maple staff planted in the ground next to her, polished to a sheen. "How may I help you?"

"Well, we're visiting the city and decided to stop by the temple, because of some rumors floating around Tokyo about a girl who lived in and took care of it alone." Miyouri paused, "Would that be you?"

She nodded cheerfully, almost proudly, and stated, "Yes, I'm Koterasu Akira, this temple's guardian. Please come inside. As you can imagine I don't get many visitors."

The group obliged, Keishin just glad the trip was over.


	5. The Solitary Guardian

**Disclaimer- Neither me nor my brother own Angelic Layer. Or Chobits. Or anything else that may come into this story but the Original Characters and plot.**

_AN (Taeniaea)- Nothing to put here._

Chapter 4- The Solitary Guardian

-I-

Bowing politely, the rest of the trio entered, following the temple guardian, Akira, to a room in a smaller structure to the left, which had a table, a few other doors, and was walled in a traditional Japanese panel style. She put out some pads for them to sit on and left, a few minutes later returning with tea.

"So, tell me about yourselves.."

"Well, I'm Suzuki Miyouri, my school's second-best track runner." Miyouri started, the others picking up.

Keishin remained silent until Miyouri hit him in the back with a fan she had been hiding behind her back. "I'm one of the best, if not the best, computer hackers in Tokyo. My name's Keishin Issun." He finally said, obviously uncomfortable, or irritated-one.

"Well, I like playing Angelic Layer and this is my angel. Her name is Chiisai Kage." Seimei said in very soft tone. Anyone would have to work to be able to hear it.

"I see, are you going to join the tournament?" Akira asked as she sipped her tea.

Seimei looked down at Chiisai Kage, then her eyes seemed to flash with something for a second before she said, "I guess I will if Chiisai Kage keeps working right and I feel up to it."

"Hey Akira." It was Keishin who asked, "How'd you end up guarding the temple by yourself?"

Akira's eyes flashed as she held back tears when she replied evasively, "Eh, things happened." '_A lot of things._'

-I-

Flashback

_The rain cascaded down in sheets as screams could be heard from a house. Within, there was a seven-year old girl, watching a complete stranger hold a knife to her mother. He stabbed her gut. The father had already been dealt with at the front door, the girl saw that too. She had long, pale, purple hair that reached just to her ankles. Her name was Akira. The man turned to her, a maniacal grin on his face as he muttered about all the fun they were going to have._

_Akira was scared, very scared. She did the only thing she ever did when she was scared, she ran into the woods behind the house, escaping just ahead of the man, who didn't know the house's layout as well. He couldn't find her and burned the house in frustration, turning it to ash despite the rain. Akira cried as she could see it from the woods._

_She ran deeper into the forest, and she kept running until she tripped. Sniffing, she stood up and saw it was an old root, sticking out along an old staircase. Assuming it would lead somewhere safe in her child's mind, she ran up the steps, tripping several times in her haste. At the end she found a temple, or what was left of one. The shingles were falling off, its walls were rotting. The gates had fallen to decay, and fell off their hinges when she pushed on them. Inside was only in a slightly better state, the wall having absorbed nature's assault._

_Sniffing, she crawled inside the center shrine, curled into a ball, and went to sleep._

_The next morning the rain had stopped, and a few stray beams of sunlight drifted through holes in the roof of the shrine. Akira explored the temple, and eventually discovered a small door behind the shrine's three-legged pagoda, just large enough for someone to crawl through. It slid off to the side after she experimented with it a little. Having nothing else to do really, Akira crawled through. Inside there was a room just as large as the one she had left, only it was also in decay. There were small holes all over its walls, and a vine grew on the far end. She walked around, and her foot fell through the wooden planks, revealing a hidden compartment. She carefully pulled her foot out and started removing the planks, which was easy to do in their state._

_Inside she found a large chest, maybe twice her length. She pulled it out after much effort, and noticed a barely legible plaque just over the lock holding it shut. _

_**'Here lies the memories and possessions of Hashimoto Akita, custodian of the Temple of Three Suns.'**_

_Akira pulled it open, easily since the locks were rusted beyond repair. Inside the chest there was a long maple staff resting on a sea of gold and silver coins. Aside from the staff there was another, smaller chest, and several scrolls. The scrolls, she found out, were actually much more legible then the plaque, and were letters between Akita and someone named Etsuko. The smaller she couldn't open the smaller chest, which was made entirely of metal, with a still sturdy lock._

_The next day Akira went out into town with a pouch of gold, and asked for help rebuilding the temple, using to gold to pay volunteers. From then on, Akira had been the temple's guardian._

-I-

"Hey! Hey! You with us there?" Keishin asked.

"Oh, yeah. I was just thinking." Akira replied. She turned, "How long are you going to be here."

"Teacher said about a school week." Keishin responded.

Akira nodded and turned to Seimei, turned to Seimei, "What's your angel's, and more importantly your own, preferred weapon?"

Seimei looked over at Akira with still-dull, violet eyes and said, "I guess my preferred weapon would be a bladed staff, Chiisai Kage's preferred weapon would be the same thing."

Well, how about I train you? You look like you know your way around martial arts, which is okay, but I'm a master of Sono Butouken(1) I could teach you how to use your bladed staff, as I happen to have trained in said art for years, of course your practice tool will be fake."

This painted an expression of shock on Miyouri's face. Sono Butouken was a lost art, there were no masters, officially. It was an art that trained the user to be able to fight fluently and evasively with practically anything the old master's could imagine with a blade, it was a very useful art-in the feudal era. And here was a sixteen -year-old who claimed seiha(2)!

"Sono Butouken! That's a lost art and you say that you'll train me in it?" yelled, Seimei. Her tone was full of shock, and her violet eyes were no longer dull, they had life in them again. She had jumped up very fast in shock. When she yelled she woke up Chiisai Kage who in turn jumped up and kicked her deus hard in the head.

"Are you doubting my credibility?" Akira asked plainly.

"No I'm not doubting you Akira it's only that I'm shocked." replied Seimei, who was looking very coldly at Chiisai with angry violet eyes for kicking her in head. Chiisai replied by being very mad with her deus for waking her by yelling too loud.

"Well, do you want to learn or not?" Akira inquired, totally disregarding Seimei's last sentence.

"Yes I would like to learn it very much!" Seimei said, with a determined expression on her face.

"I want to learn it has well!" Chiisai replied, looking right at Akira.

"Alright, we start tomorrow."

"Ok Akira, tomorrow then" Seimei replied.

With that, the trio bade farewell and left for the hotel, slipping into the class's line just before it entered the hotel as the teacher called roll.

-I-

Footnotes-

1-Way of the Dancing Blades or The Dancing Blade

2-Mastery


	6. Training from Akira

**Disclaimer- Neither of us owns Angelic Layer. Or Chobits. Or anything else that may appear in this story except the plot and original characters.**

_AN (Rimshooter)- Apparently there was a chapter mix up and chapter three got skipped. It's been fixed by this update, however. Me and Taeniaea apologize for any inconvenience that may have come from this._

_For clarification, this story makes use of a variant of the AAMS chip. You can find information about this chip on the site Angel Fall._

_Basically, it allows your angel to move off the layer, have their own personality without programming, and it gives them the ability to speak._

Chapter 6- Training from Akira

-I-

The morning after Seimei, Miyouri, and Keishin met Akira; Seimei could be seen in her hotel room sitting in a chair, reading a book on staffs and bladed staffs. At least she was until there were several knocks on the door, followed by the door being knocked over as Akira walked in, taking time to replace the door. "Good morning Seimei, come on. We have a long day ahead of us. Oh, and a word of advice: Don't lock your door."

Akira promptly dragged her off, making enough commotion to wake Keishin and Miyouri who just stared.

"Hey wait up don't forget us!" yelled Chiisai who was holding her younger sister Hikari, who was not done yet. Chiisai then ran to Seimei and jumped up in the backpack still holding Hikari, just before Akira reached full speed and all hope of catching up was lost.

Akira ignored them all and and arrived at the temple a few minutes later, taking a minute to rest before tossing a bladed staff at Seimei, grabbing one herself. "Now, show me what you've got." Before Seimei could respond, Akira rushed her, stabbing and sweeping with the spear in blinding moves.

To her credit, Seimei tried to move, but was hit with an incoming sweep, followed by another an instant later, and then a stab which knocked the breath out of her. As she collapsed to the ground, she saw a blade pointed at her.

"Weak. From now on, we'll spar three times a day, at lunch, breakfast, and dinner. From now until lurch, you are to wear these bracelets and these boots, breakfast is being served, see you in a minute." After Akira boot the bracelets on Seimei, her hands fell to the floor, and when Seimei put the boots on, her feet were lodged to the spot. "Oh, and you have to get over here by lunch or I'm doubling the weight!" Akira shouted cheerfully from across the yard, eating a five-star breakfast in plain view, with another plate beside her.

Seimei desperately tried to move, but failed as the weights in her boots cemented her to the ground, only able to move fraction of a millimeter.

Hours passed and Seimei had only made an inch of progress, "Lunch time! I'm letting you take off the weights while we spar."

She again tossed the staff at Seimei, picking her own up and rushing as soon as Seimei had the weights off and grabbed the staff. She performed the same moves as before.

Seimei started trying to dodge, albeit more successfully, while lunging with the staff, but it was deflected and she barely dodged the next blow, which would have knocked her down, again.

Akira smiled, she was getting better. Before Seimei could think, the staff swept left and hit her hard in her side, knocking her to the ground.. again.

Seimei slowly got up off of her feet, her head bleeding from a wound to her head. Her head was ringing, and it hurt. A lot.

Akira's face was painted with a worried expression as Seimei's head was bleeding, "Are you alright? I didn't mean to-"

Seimei walked past Akira in a daze, just before collapsing on the ground.

Keishin and Miyouri arrived shortly, followed by Misaki, all of them gasped at the site. "Don't just stand there, come on!" Akira shouted, putting Seimei on her shoulder and dashing off to the hospital.


	7. Hospitalized

**Disclaimer- Neither of us owns Angelic Layer. Or Chobits. Or anything else that appears aside from the plot and main characters.**

_AN (Taeniaea)- Nothing to put here. _

Chapter 7- Hospitalized

-I-

Three days later.. Seimei groaned, trying to sit up, but was stopped by a nurse. "Take it easy, that was some beating. You alright?"

"Yes." Seimei replied brokenly.

"Okay, I"ll be right back." She exited the room, "The patient is awake."

As soon as the words left the Nurse's mouth, Akira barged past the door. "Good." She sighed.

"I thought I might of killed my favorite student." She said sadly, before brightening impossibly, "But Seimei-Chan is alright, right?"

Seimei looked over at the door in a daze when Akira barged past it, and replied "I'm fine Akira." Her head was still ringing some and it was wrapped in bandages.

Akira sighed again, "Good. Do you know what this means?"

Seimei replied, "Not really Akira. Ahck, my head's ringing."

"Ringing huh? I'm sure it's just dizziness." Akira said with her apparently unbreakable attitude.

The nurse came in, "Sorry but she should rest."

"Alrighty!"

"What I 'm fine! I really don't want to rest-" By the time Seimei had even started speaking the lights were off and the door had closed.

As Akira and the nurse left Seimei's room they moved through the corridors, after arriving at the waiting room, they started heading through the corridors, apparently to the doctor in charge of Seimei's office.

On the way there they heard music flitting in from one of the rooms, a sign told them this was the critical care wing. "It sounds so nice." Misaki droned.

"Ah, that's Saezuru Chidori's room, please don't disturb her."

"Right."

-I-

Meanwhile Seimei lay in her bed, thinking, '_Why do I get the feeling they know something I don't.'_ Before promptly falling asleep.

-I-

"What?" They arrived at the doctor's office, only to face disturbing news. The doctor said Seimei had a personality chip installed on her brain, because she had a weak consciousness. "Is she.. even herself?" It was Misaki who asked.

"Well, we programmed it as close as possible, but its been altered several times. Listen, you must NOT ever mention it to her, the trauma would be severe."

"R-right."

With that, they left the hospital, noticing the music had stopped playing from Chidori's room and the door was open. Inside they caught a glimpse of a five-year old girl lying asleep on the bed, with all kinds of equipment hooked up, and she was singing.

She stopped when they noticed it, and they moved on. Unknown to the passerbys, she had just seen something in her dreams, because of their [presence, or rather an uninvited person that was with them' _What was that?_' She had been looking at a broken mirror in her dream-room, when suddenly someone appeared in it and looked at her, before vanishing.

Misaki and the others left the hospital, Misaki pausing to wonder at the fact that even such a small child wasn't spared life's cruelty. She tried to find the room, but it didn't have a window. ' _Well, Seimei-chan gets to leave tomorrow, so I should prepare a welcome-home gift._'

The next morning Seimei was packing up her things so she could leave the hospital. There was a restless atmosphere in the air as she worked hurrying to get done until she noticed something off, her alarm clock has stopped ticking.

"Need any help onee-chan(1)?" A little girl dressed in a flowing white dress appeared behind her with long gold hair. As Seimei blinked, the girl was gone.

Seimei was still looking over at the spot where the little girl had appeared, "What the, who was that." The clock started ticking again.

A Nurse approached her door and knocked, before entering. "Are you ready?"

Seimei picked up her large backpack, "Yes I'm ready!"

The Nurse nodded, "Okay, follow me please."

"Ok" Was all Seimei said as she followed the nurse.

The Nurse paused as she heard singing coming from the ER area.(2) "It's a wonder she can sing so well.." the Nurse trailed off, walking toward the elevator.

"Who is that singing?" Seimei asked the Nurse as she was following her to the elevator.

"Ah, she's one of our more peculiar patients. Saezuru Chidori. She went into a kind of vegetative state a few minutes post-birth, and has been like that since. She hasn't opened her eyes since then, and her father funds her stay."

"Yet she can sing?"

"It's not understandable, it just happens to sound appealing to the ear As I said, it's a wonder." The nurse replied.

"Ah, here we are. The cab outside will take you to your hotel."

"Ok then bye." Seimei replied as she walked out the door to the cab, which took her to the hotel where she finally got some rest.

-I-

Footnotes-

1- In japan from what I gather you address elder females as onee which could be 'miss', 'lady', or 'big sister'. There are a decent sum of other ways to address them, but I just think this one fits the occasion better.

2- There isn't a door to separate Seimei and the nurse from the ER as this is also a CCU. [Critical Care Unit.]


	8. Practice

**Disclaimer- Neither of us owns Angelic Layer, Chobits, or anything else but the plot and original characters.**

_AN (Rimshooter)- Team battles are in this story, but aside from practice they are only found in the Internationals. In the Internationals you are forced to have a team of four to enter, while in practice team battles it's a two vs two._

_You'll also see the two inverse legendary weapons. 'Legendary' weapons are angel weapons that have special attributes, and are only accessible through a Berserk. A berserk is a version of Hyper mode that takes SP instead as well as Health, but in return gives even more of a bonus then Hyper Mode._

Chapter 8- Practice

-I-

**Next Day- Morning **

Keishin sighed and put on his uniform. (The custom one.)

The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. He reminded himself that he'd be returning home soon, to summer vacation, and that this was a hotel. As he finished all of this, he pulled out his laptop (1) and hooked up his scanner to it, analyzing Teramora for any defects.

Glad that this was out of the way and Teramora was more or less OK, Keishin decided fix some breakfast. As he sat down to eat, he saw Teramora still in the scanner. Shaking off his nervousness Keishin researched the town's various shops and businesses. ' _Ah, there's a Piffle Princess. Well, it gives me something to do other than get beat up by Akira._'

With that, he made his way to the store, which was unexpectedly large. Sighing he found a table, after weaving through the crowd, and sat down, running Teramora through various practice exercises.

Seimei walked into the crowded Piffle Princess, weaving through the flocks of people like water through a soil. Eventually, she reached the cyber-café where she saw Keishin practicing with Teramora, ignoring the line of people who wanted to fight him.(1)

As Seimei approached Keishin noticed her. "Hey Seimei! Come sit on this chair beside me, we can do a team match if you want! This is one of the tables adapted to be used for them!"

Seimei sat down in the chair next to Keishin as Chiisai Kage jumped over on to Keishin's Head saying "Kei-chan!"

Keishin gained a slightly white expression as he plucked the angel off his head and held her by her clothes in front of him, before promptly throwing her violently to Seimei. "R-right, let's just start the fight." He said as a pair of teens sat on the opposite end, both of them teenagers in a school uniform, blue skirt, white button-up, long socks, etc.

They had already entered their angel. Hina, the smaller one, was dressed in a button up white shirt, with a long denim skirt, she was wearing boots, a pair of pale orange sun-glasses, and had long dirty-blond hair. Hina was rather petite and had short hair that flowed loosely, with a single bang coming over her left eye, which was brown.

The larger one, Rina, was wearing a black tank-top with light tan cargo pants that only reached halfway below her knee. These were tied down, except the pockets, by leather straps. Rina was wearing shoulder pads and black fingerless gloves. She was slim with light-tan hair tied into a braid, she was maybe a quarter-inch taller than Hina.

Keishin smirked, Rina and Hina looked like an endurance and speed type respectively, looking at his stats it seemed he and Seimei could win easily enough. "Whenever you're ready we'll start, Seimei." Keishin's angel, Teramora, had been in the layer when Seimei arrived anyway, so there was no need for an entry line.

Seimei smiled with a determined expression on her face, "We'll win this!" She said before yelling the entry line for Chiisai.

"Fly on the shadows of the past, Chiisai Kage! Angel Descend!"

She threw Chiisai Kage on the layer, said angel landing on her feet in a fighting stance. Chiisai narrowed her blood red eyes some at Teramora, she had a very determined expression on her face and said with an icy tone "I wanted to fight HIM!" Before switching to a warm tone "But I'll fight these two. We better win or I'll use you as a training tool for my kicks!" The last part was said with a very cold tone.

Before the 'casual' conversation could go any further, Keishin interrupted, "Enough talk, Angelic Fight!"

Teramora summoned his baton, which wasn't extended, and pointed it at his opponents. Perhaps it was a warning, perhaps he was mocking his opponents, perhaps Keishin just wanted to make a cool start to the battle.

All of this didn't matter, as Teramora's boosters charged up, sending him rushing to Hina, who summoned a microphone with stand (no wires) and barely blocked one of Teramora's many strikes as he began circling around her in one of his non-SP tactics. Spectators had nicknamed it the 'hornet hive' because of the multitude of stinging blows being thrown at Hina.

While this was happening, Rina rushed at Chiisai Kage, a pair of daggers in her hands, the one in her left hand razed up to her right should so it pointed at her chest, while the other just dragged behind her sprint.

Chiisai Kage synthesized her staff and rose the bladed end to where it was pointed at the sky before, sweeping it at Rina, hitting her in the side of her head and knocking onto her side.

Teramora was placed on the defensive as Hina sang a loud note into her microphone, creating a blast that pushed Teramora back. He grunted and summoned his cannon, firing it at her before she could react, causing her to stand still while he drew a circle in the air. "Touketsu Chouseki."

A wave of tiny glass shards gushed out of the circle Teramora drew like water from a faucet and poised like an obedient snake before him, before splitting in two paths, one headed for each of Teramora's two opponents.

Rina's deus grunted with frustration and climbed to her feet, before turning and seeing the ice head towards her.

Hina shouted and used her barrier song to protect Rina, not noticing the wave coming at her as well until it was too late. It smashed into her with enough force to throw her off the layer.

With Hina out of the way, Teramora nodded to Chiisai Kage and prepared to use is Touketsu Chouseki on her, drawing another circle as his SP dropped down to ten, a wave heading towards Rina.

Chiisai looked over at him and nodded to before she suddenly sprinted at Rina. With ease, she started using her staff to lash out in rapid hits at Rina's side.

Just as the last staff blow landed on Rina's head, the ice hit her from the opposite direction, resulting in a vicious blow that dropped her HP from 36 to 0 instantly.

The pair across from Keishin and Seimei bowed and walked away, obviously disappointed at losing.

Keishin turned to Seimei, "Hey, we make a decent team after all.", he remarked.

Seimei turned to Keishin and said, "Yeah I guess we do!"

But Chiisai's, who was still on the angelic layer, blood red eyes turned darker and narrowed. Chiisai yelled at Keishin "HEY YOU I WANT TO FIGHT YOUR ANGEL NOW!"

Keishin chuckled a little, "Aren't we one to hold a grudge." By now he had adjusted to the whole free will thing.

Chiisai heard Keishin chuckling. her blood red eyes turned even darker. They were now almost black and she also started glowing black. '_What is wrong with Chiisai, she is glowing again!_' Seimei then asked Keishin if they could have an Angelic Fight.

"Sure, I have the time to appease your little munch kin marionette." Keishin replied, with the objective of fueling Chiisai's anger.

Chiisai heard Keishin call her a little munchkin marionette..'_Seimei won't much help as she is, but when I was hidden in Misaki's bag a while back I heard Seimei had a personality chip installed on her brain, which means I should be able to access it through our neural connection!_' She then got in a fighting stance.

"Angelic Fight!"

Keishin smiled, now opposite from Seimei, as Teramora summoned his baton and rushed her, performing a Hornet Hive on her.

"Let's try and have fun!"

Chiisai narrowed her blackened eyes as she started sending signals to the personality chip installed in Seimei's brain, via their neural connection. She synthesized her staff and jumped high into the air and after opening up her wings, she started to fly at him.

Seimei then grabbed a hold of her head with one her hands while she started to feel very odd. '_What's going on here!'_

Teramora's own wings appeared and he dodged the bloodthirsty Chiisai Kage, using his strategically placed thrusters to help him maneuver better than her.

He attached his cannon to his other arm, still using the baton with his free hand, and shot an Ion blast at Chiisai, following it up by sending the baton flying at her in one of the directions she could still dodge to, following it up swiftly with another blast, just above her head.

Directly after that, he sent a shot directly below her, all while he was rushing her, until he was within arms reach and performed a mid-air Hornet Hive as she couldn't doge anywhere, using his bare hands as the baton clattered to the ground below them.

Seimei gave in to the odd feeling that she was having in her head. Her mind then turned darker and was full of rage. Her violet eyes turned almost black like her angel's eyes, she put the arm she had been using to hold her head back down at her side.

Chiisai had a very dark smile on her face while pure black armor appears on her body while the staff she holding turned into Tenrei Yousei, a 'Legendary' weapon. It was a glimmering steel staff with a gold triheaded spear on the end. Like a trident, only the center spoke was an over-sized arrow.

Keishin noticed Seimei's eyes, "Oho, someone's been a naughty girl. Do I have to take you back to munchkin land?"

He gave Teramora a a sequence of orders as he reached into his bag and pulled out a keyboard, which wirelessly linked to the angelic layer through his memory card, allowing him to hack into their connection. His fingers then danced over the keyboard, fixing the 'reprogramming' Chiisai Kage did before Seimei fainted from the stress of it.

Meanwhile Teramora, being on rush mode, rushed Chiisai, grabbing the staff with his hand and using it to pull Chiisai into a punch.

Seimei blinked several times, regaining control as she thought '_What just happened here?_'

She saw her angel having a hard time so she sent an order to Chiisai, who had just been pulled into a punching fit by Teramora.

Chiisai let go of the staff and flew away, before sending a wind beam at him.

Keishin smiled as he let his fingers slide off the keyboard. Teramora dodged the beam, tossing the staff to Chiisai as he went into Berserk Creed, his Berserk, his visor parting to reveal his milky white eyes turning black. His right hand summoned Gilfried and waved his left hand at her in a 'Bring it on' fashion.

Chiisai rushed Teramora as she concentrated on her staff, sending a brilliant white beam, Smite, at him, only for Teramora to bat it aside with Gilfried.

He blocked Chiisai's incoming blow, pushing the staff down as he held Gilfried with both hands, before grappling the staff with his legs. He then kept Gilfried on steady to keep the staff from sliding out, and attempted to head but Chiisai several times, only for her to tilt her head away from the first one, only to be hit by another.(2) Aggravated, she tried to return the favor, and succeeded depending on how looked at it.

Teramora met her attack with a head-but of his own. Chiisai's blackened eyes seemed to glow some. She growled and tried to head-but him again,but she passed out from the last damage she had taken.

Seimei then lay back in her chair thinking, '_The fight's over now._'

Teramora landed on his feet as all of his equipment vanished. He caught Chiisai as she fell, her equipment vanishing as well. He then carried her, in a fireman's cradle, to Seimei's end before walking back to Keishin who picked him up and packed him away. "It's getting la-" He was cut off as someone pushed him into the table from behind.

"That was a good fight Kei-chan!" Miyouri yelled as she ignored the other spectators around the table, pretty much everyone from before the fight and the main characters.

Misaki walked over to Seimei, "Is she okay?"

"I'm not really sure.. Do you happen to know what happened? In the middle of the fight?" Seimei replied.

"N-no, sorry I wasn't here.", Misaki replied uncomfortably.

Kotarou cut in, "In any case, it's late. You can give her to Hatoko and she'll be fixed by morning, if there's any damage. By the way, be ready to go, we're heading back to Tokyo about noon tomorrow."

"Oh okay..." Seimei replied, looking a little tired. She left with Misaki to take Chiisai to Hatoko to be fixed. Along the way, she bought a few upgrades for Hikari and Chiisai.

-I-

"So how long were you watching?" Keishin said as he and Miyouri walked through a park, taking a shortcut 'home'.

"Since the team match, I followed you."

"You noticed what Chiisai did during our fight right?"

"Yeah.. So are you entering the tournament tomorrow?"

"Sure, I guess."

"Cool!"

They arrived and went to their respective rooms, quickly going to sleep.

-**Morning**-

The bus was already waiting by the time Keishin got up, and to his surprise Akira was standing by it, to see them off. He walked out of the hallway to see Hatoko leaving Seimei's room, she probably just returned Chiisai. The teacher saw them and ushered them to the bus, along with all the other students. They set off for Tokyo as Akira waved energetically by the hotel.

-I-

Footnotes-

1- The café was crowded, so Keishin was reserving the only available table.

2- Teramora does more damage when he hits, because he's an endurance type, while Chiisai is a speed-type. Teramora is only able to move relatively fast because of his thrusters.


	9. Signing Up

**Disclaimer- Neither of us owns Angelic Layer, or Chobits, or anything else that may appear in the story aside from the plot and characters.**

_AN (Rimshooter)- Me and Taeniaea would like to see more reviews, so we know people are actually reading this. On a second note, this chapter takes place on Saturday, a day after the last scene of "Practice', the previous chapter.  
_

Chapter 9- Signing Up

-I-

Keishin sighed, his usual, uncaring expression now on his face. On his back was a black cargo backpack, which had all of his angelic layer equipment packed neatly inside. His official, yes he actually paid for it, Angel Card was in his back pocket, just under his wallet. He waked up to the registration counter, which only had a single attendant, dressed in a blue uniform with angel wings embroidered on its back, stood at it, along with a quickly growing line of people.

By the time Keishin walked from the door to the counter, the line split in two as another attendant arrived.

After almost half an hour of waiting, he made it to the counter. While he was waiting Seimei took a breath as she saw the length of the lines to register. She noticed Keishin in one, and managed to get in line a few spaces behind him.

"I'd like to register." Was all he said.

"Angel Card, please."

He nodded without speaking and handed it to her, along with an ID so she could identify it as his.(1)

"Your Angel's name?"

"Teramora."

"What would you like to be addressed as?"

He sighed and just told her to use his default information, which was on the ID.

The attendant nodded and handed him his Angel Card, "I look forward to seeing you in the tournament. Next?"

Keishin walked out the door, where stalls and shops of all kind had lined the walkway, to celebrate the fifth annual angelic layer tournament's preliminaries.(2)

Seimei answered all of the attendants questions accordingly after waiting for the person in front of her to finish. She registered to use Chiisai Kage in her fights. It took a little while.

The area around the stadium was a festival, in almost all respects. It was filled with angelic layer enthusiasts and competitors, as well as people who didn't really care about it, and were just here to see the festivities. There was even an electronic billboard installed over the stadium door, which was replaying the various fights Misaki, the current champion, went through, as well as a few fights from 'Shu', the previous champion.

Sighing, he walked over to a stall and bought a burger off of pocket change, before walking over to a miraculously empty picnic table to eat it.

Seimei finished answering the attendant's questions and took off to catch up with Keishin, who she saw upon walking out the doors, sitting at a picnic table eating a burger by himself. She walked up to him, weaving through the thick crowds of people until she reached the table. "Hi, sorry about the match." Chiisai popped out of Seimei's backpack and apologized as well.

"Hmm? Oh, don't worry about it. It was a good match."

As Keishin was talking Misaki entered the courtyard. She managed to notice Keishin and Seimei, and walked up to them. "Did you register Seimei-chan?"

Seimei turned her head look over to at her childhood friend, "Yeah I did Misaki-chan, how you today?" she said warmly while she wore a smile on her face.

Misaki smiled as well, "Good, thank you. What are you doing?"

"I was just about to ask Keishin about Angelic Teams."

Keishin actually blinked, before it hit him. "Oh yeah, I was wondering. If any of us enter the Internationals, want to team up?"

"I'll team up with you Keishin!"Seimei said.

"Sure." Misaki seconded.

"Good." Keishin looked at his clock, "Crap, mom's birthday is today, later!" With that Keishin was gone, moving surprisingly fast for someone 'Out of shape.'

Misaki puzzled a moment until she noticed the clock, "It's already 9:00!" Time flew by fast. "Aw, I have to get home soon!" Was all she said before sprinting away.

'_People can move fast these days.._' was all Seimei thought as she began walking home.

-I-

Footnotes

1- As Angelic Layer becomes more popular, more and more people are stealing Angel Cards. Angel cards have their owner's name imprinted on them when bought.

2- Shuuko was the reigning champion three years, so I think that Misaki beat her in the fourth tournament, making this the fifth.


	10. First Round

**Disclaimer- Neither of us owns Angelic Layer, Chobits, or anything else that may appear in this story aside from the plot and original characters. Oh, and we own Gilfried and Tenrei Yousei says Taeniaea.**

_AN (Rimshooter)- Nothing to write here that we haven't already told you._

Chapter 10- First Round

Keishin had the first match of the day, at noon, and he was oversleeping. Why? He had been up all night working on Teramora and improving his angel's already formidable abilities. For example, he replaced the Ion Blast ability, with the Mukankaku Dageki, or 'Numb Strike' which had the same effect as his Ion Blast, only it was close-ranged and cost less AP. He still had the cannon, but it now only gave him a damage boost, and he couldn't use it and the baton at once anymore.

Another things was Keishin had bought two AD packs, and a AA chip using money from his job. This boosted Teramora's stats, as well as forced Keishin to stay up installing and synchronizing the software, so it would be most effective.

All in all, this lead to Keishin staying up to three o' clock in the morning.

Despite his alarm, Keishin would have slept in, had he not been woken up by his friend, Miyouri.

A loud, obnoxious, clapping sound disturbed the silence of Keishin's room, suddenly, and Keishin himself sat upright near-instantly, trying to keep the sound out of his ears.

"Wakey-Wakey! You're going to miss your match Kei-chan!" Miyouri shouted, while smacking two metal sheets together.

"Ahck! What time is it?!" Keishin yelled as he looked at the clock, which read '11:53' "Crap!" Keishin pushed Miyouri out the door and put on his custom uniform, hastily correcting it. '11:55' A few seconds later, he was out the door kicking up dust on his way to the stadium.

'11:59' Was what Keishin's watch said as he skidded into the contestant's lounge, a few seconds from being late, he collapsed into a seat where the other contestants stared at him until the attendant came in and made an announcement, "Would number eighteen please report to the stadium?"

Her words revived Keishin in a seemingly impossible manner as he left, heading toward the blue side of the stadium. As he got in the chair, it rose until it was adjacent, above the stadium floor, with the red-side contestant: Aya Tachibana. She was a slim girl wearing a school uniform, a simple white shirt with red skirt and long socks. She was also wearing a red bow in her orange-red hair, which reached to her collar bone and covered some of her central-shirt. She had no bangs and her eye-color wasn't visible due to the Angel Visor.

The referee asked each of them if they were ready, and they replied positively at the same time. "Bring down the sky! Chisora, Angel descend!", Aya threw her angel into the layer with an air of confidence. Her angel was dressed in the same outfit as Aya, only her skirt was blue. Chisora also had a pair of angel's wings folded behind her back, only they were blue.

"Enforce our will, Teramora! Angel descend!" Teramora descended into the layer headfirst, landing in a handstand and flipping forward to face his opponent. His baton synthesized and he extended it, performing a quick bow for his opponent.

As soon as soon as Teramora finished his bow, the referee shouted, "Angelic Fight!" The arena transformed into an ancient Greek city, with columns scattered about, some only half size with the rest lying broken beside them. There were the ruins of a temple, which was filled with blocks of stone and statues, as well as beautiful carvings of various Greek mythical deities. There was a long stone space in front of the temple, with Columns lining it, some broken. There were also a few smaller temples out behind the columns, perpendicular to the main temple. The sky was in permanent sunset as the angels faced each other on either end of the stone walkway.

This was the arena they'd fight in.

Chisora made the first move and took cover behind one of the still-standing columns. She peaked out of cover and fired a bolt at Teramora, which split into three bolts, all heading to where Teramora was standing. This dropped her SP to 16.

Teramora boosted behind the nearest column, before boosting again toward Chisora's position, as soon as he was there, flew on top of the column and used frozen tide, making it rain ice onto Chisora's last position, which promptly shifted to trap her, or attempt to at any rate, in its 'Death's Embrace' attack.

Unfortunately for Teramora, as soon as he took flight, Aya saw where he was and Chisora ran into the temple, escaping 'Death's Embrace' by hairbreadths. Once Chisora was inside, Aya swapped her visor to a first person view, seeing from Chisora's eyes since the building's roof was still intact.

Keishin growled in frustration, switching his visor to first person as well when Teramora followed her into the temple. Everything was quiet as Teramora entered, his baton still extended. Annoyed with the lack of progress, Keishin had Teramora draw a rune, while he mouthed a phrase. '_Migoto en Hari_'

Instantly, even though the temple had a roof, millions of tiny shards of glass started drifting through the sky as Teramora collapsed, in the center of the temple.

Chisora ran from cover, seeing Teramora collapse, and fired a flaming bolt at him, before rushing him with her blade. Her Sp had dropped down to 14.

As soon as Chisora left cover, the glass floating around shifted into a see-through cage, around Teramora, which absorbed her attacks

Chisora ran outside the temple and aimed at the door, ready to fire at the slightest movement. '_He has to come out if he wants to finish the match._' was all that went through her head.

The glass cage lifted and smashed a hole in the back of the temple. Teramora got up as the glass stopped falling, walking just far enough so he could be outside, and the glass started falling again.

This time it quickly formed into a clone of Chisora, standing directly behind her. The clone's hands turned into blades and she impaled both the angel's head, and heart, pinning her as the blades spiked off within the angel's body like the limbs of a tree. In the end, she had what looked like a glass skeleton inside her, fitting her tendons and such perfectly.

The clone vanished as the skeleton remained. It moved and Chisora moved with it. The thing began forcing Chisora to punch herself, until Keishin had thought of a better fate for her. All in all, Aya had no idea what happened when the skeleton exploded, dealing a point of damage for every shard of glass. Even if she found out, it was useless as there were thousands of shards, all of which shot from inside of Chisora, making dodging an impossibility.

Aya collected Chisora with a shocked expression, looking at Keishin. Without saying anything, Aya left the stadium.

Keishin collected Teramora in silence, before getting out of the stadium himself, vanishing into the crowds. He went home, and promptly went to sleep.


	11. Can Shadows Really Shine?

**Disclaimer- Neither of us owns Angelic Layer, or Chobits, or anything else but the plot and original characters.**

_AN (Rimshooter)- Sorry for the long wait. Taeniaea doesn't have anything to say, so I'll just get on with it._

Chapter 11- Can Shadows Truly Shine?

-I-

Seimei walked into the stadium lobby and sat down, making note of the various contestants seated around her, all with determined expressions on their faces, aside from a select few. Unlike her usual attire, she was wearing a dark violet jacket. On the back there was a black, red-eyed dragon with a smaller, silver, purple-eyed dragon in its protective embrace. Chiisai was perched on her shoulder in a proud stature, without her cloak on.

She waited patiently for her turn, her eyes drifted to Hatoko. '_Will I be able to fight her? We're in the same ladder, so we'll meet eventually if I win and keep winning.._'

Before any conversation could begin between Seimei and Hatoko, however, an Attendant walked in. "Would Seimei Iyoku please report to the layer?"

"Hai." Seimei obliged, walking through the corridors to the central room, with the layer and seats.

She sat down and her chair rose its proper position.

Her opponent was a tan, lean guy wearing a white tank-top and jeans. His angel visor covered his eyes. His hair was short and blond, with a single, small bang coming out over his left eye. His name was Kawaguchi Jurou.

"Ready?" The referee looked at both deuses, "Angels In!"

Jurou threw his angel into the layer. "Bring forth our victory, Katsurou! Angel descend!"

Katsurou was just as lean as his Deus, only much paler. He wore black leather jacket, which was open to reveal a black shirt with the yin-yang symbol on it. His pants were black slacks, and he was wearing laced, black combat boots.

he layer transformed into a typical urban environment. It was a city- street with a few cars parked along the sidewalks, an open manhole, and a few billboards. There was even a truck lying on its side with another car lodged next to it. The street met a T-intersection. The left led to a skate-park, while the right led to a construction site. There were roadblocks at the end of each of the branches (Just far enough so both the skate park and construction site were reachable, and roadblocks in front of the truck.

Katsurou was standing on top of the left end of a half-pipe in the skate-park.

"The administration has informed us of a special rule for this fight, going past the roadblocks will be considered a layer-out. You can start as soon as Chiisai Kage enters the layer!"

Seimei just smirked with a determined expression on her face, "We'll try our best to win!" She said before yelling the entry line for Chiisai.

"Fly on the shadows of the past, Chiisai Kage! Angel Fall in!"

She threw Chiisai Kage on the layer, as she was falling to the layer she let her violet wings came out and she stopped in mid-air, flying in a fighting stance. Chiisai narrowed her blood red eyes some at Katsurou, as she had a very determined on her face

Chiisai Kage then synthesized her staff and raised the bladed end to where it was pointed at the sky, flying at Katsurou in an attempt to hit him in the side of his head and knock him onto his side.

As Chiisai was thrown into the layer, and charged him, Katsurou synthesized his Markov and fired several rounds at her. He also synthesized a pair of Rollerblades and skated down the half-pipe, using his momentum to soar into the air and off the other end, in an attempt to kick Chiisai with his right foot., only for her to fly off to the side. Katsurou just used a pair of thruster in his skates to turn, mid-air, and shoot her in her back, lowering her health by a good ten points.

Seimei growled as her eyes darkened. _'I can't lose here!_' Chiisai started glowing black as she went into her Berserk. Her staff turned into Tenrei Yousei and she turned, using her perpendicular angle to cast Smite, which wasn't dodge-able by Katsurou as he could only turn in mid-air using his thrusters. Katsurou gritted the teeth as his deus mimicked him in frustration. That hurt, a lot. He unloaded his entire clip on her, pausing to reload as he landed and tried to skate away.

Chiisai grunted as she dodged the bullets by hairsbreadths, before rushing Katsurou as he reloaded. She poised her staff into a fighting position, ready to strike as soon as she was close enough. She never got the chance as Katsurou finished reloading, before turning and firing more rounds at her.

Seimei only watched over the fight with a very dark yet, determined expression, as Chiisai growled, barely dodging the bullets. Getting aggravated, she cast a smite toward Katsurou.

Katsurou groaned at his bad luck, being he had just skated over a pipe and tripped, just as Smite hit him. Now furious, he went into Berserk as his Markov turned into Valde, a black desert eagle.

He fired a trio of ice-rounds, bullets filled with extremely cold fluid, followed by a seeker, a high-velocity round that dodged around obstacles all aimed at Chiisai.

Still berserk, Chiisai growled, as she barely dodged the trio of ice-rounds ,only to get hit by the seeker and be thrown from the layer, unconscious.

Seimei eyes now showed sadness as Chiisai had lost the match. After which, the layer shut down. Seimei was very worried as she picked her angel up. Seimei went looking for Misaki, and Hatoko as Jurou left with a smug expression painted all over him.

While Seimei was looking for Misaki and Hatoko, she picked up a large sum of AD Packs to update Chiisai Kage. With her discount, they only cost a hundredth or so of their original price. Knowing that Chiisai was not going to like that she lost her fight at all, and she would want to become much stronger.

Misaki saw Seimei leave the Piffle Princess with a.. disappointed? expression. She approached her, "What's wrong?"

Seimei had stopped walking when she saw Misaki approaching. Hikari perched herself on Seimei's shoulder and looked down at Chiisai, worried." I lost my tournament match today, Misaki. Chiisai is still unconscious!" She said while showing Chiisai to Misaki.

Misaki sweat dropped a little, "You know, she's going to be out ten minutes minimum after losing a match right? Hatoko told me last night when I asked her about it."

"That's not what I'm worried about. Chiisai went into her Berserk form again!"

"What's happening to me? There are times when I don't feel like myself, or even know who I am anymore Misaki!" Seimei said in a very worried tone as she became increasingly excited.

"Calm down!" Someone from behind said vigorously as he placed a hand on her shoulder, before vanishing into the crowd as Misaki and Seimei tried to see who it was. Nonetheless, Seimei did calm down a little.

"Anyway, Misaki, can you help fix up Chiisai and update her?" Seimei said trying to put her worrying in the back of her mind.

"Sure.."

"Thank you Misaki. By the way, did you see my match, can you tell me how I acted in it. Seimei said before she grab a hold of her head with her hands while she dropped Chiisai and fell to her knees. Her eyes were fading in and out.

It started raining and Keishin walked out of the store, tucked under his right arm was a fairly large, but thin, box. He noticed Seimei and Misaki. 'They really could have done better than this, if it's already becoming defective.'

He picked Seimei up, over his shoulder like one would carry a large bag. He nodded towards Misaki, "Come on. We'd better get this fixed."

'_What the..' _Was all Seimei could think as she drifted to sleep.

Misaki nodded and he headed off down the street, turning right at the corner. "Keishin? The Hospital's over there."

"And?"

"Shouldn't we head there instead of.. where are we going?"

"My house." Was all he said as she followed him, perplexed.

They arrived at Keishin's house, and he walked up to the door. He motioned at Misaki to knock, as his hands were full. After she shook off the size of the door, which was actually a double-door, she knocked.(1).

A few seconds later some shuffling was heard, followed by a loud thud, followed again by the door opening as a young girl opened the door. She was the feminine, young mimic of Keishin. Her hair was waist length, glossy, and jet-black. She had the Issun's trademark green eyes and a very petite frame. She was wearing a light-pink dress with long, tight-fitting sleeves. She also had the same odd bangs as Keishin.

"Hello Kei-Cha-!" She was cut off as she noticed Misaki, who waved, and more notably- Seimei. "Excuse me." Was all he said as he walked past her, kicking off his shoes and heading to his room. "Later Emiko."

By the time Emiko, his sister, returned to reality, his door was already shut and locked.

He dumped Seimei unceremoniously on the bed and opened the box he had under his arm. As he opened it up, Misaki and Seimei discovered it was a miniature angelic layer. "Now, let's get started." He said with a tiny hint of giddiness, like a child about to play with a new toy they had wanted for some time.


	12. Artificial

_Sorry about a certain.. discrepancy in the last chapter. If you were attentive you would've noticed it._

_-Rimsho_

Keishin pieced the portable layer together, part by part, wire by wire, circuit by circuit, it was really an arduous task. After completion he pulled out a pair of angel visors and noticed Chissai was still unconscious, and Misaki had gone to sleep. Time flew by. He put an angel visor on both he and Seimei, placing Teramora in the layer. Misaki had called her mother earlier and was now asleep on the couch.

He looked up and noticed something else, Hikari was awake still.

"Do you want to help them recover?"

"Yes, of course I want to help them!" Hikari said, "But what's wrong with Seimei?"

"Can you keep a secret?"

"Yes can keep a secret. But, what kind of secret is it?"

Hikari asked while walking slowly to her sister, looking very mad at her. was going to try wake Kage up with a small hammer she pulled spontaneously out of Seimei's backpack.

"..No hammer for you." Was what Keishin said as he plucked the hammer out of her hands. "Before you start whining, listen."

"Seimei has.. a chip in her brain. She has a rare brain disease that weakens her consciousness, the trauma she went through when she was little made it more severe. So the planted that in her brain. Problem is, it's starting to conflict with her own thoughts too much, so I'm going to make it more.. flexible. But I need you to stand on the layer for me to do it... unless you want me to cut open her head?"

"Poor Seimei-chan.. I'll can stand on the layer for you!" Hikari said, before she ran onto the portable layer.

"Good. You may feel something odd; that will be me transmitting through your link with Seimei. Hence the angelic layer visor."

Keishin pulled out his laptop and plugged it into the layer table, placing his visor on. And so, the repair of Seimei's chip began, wirelessly, as Keishin slaved over it with all of his technological skill. Hikari braced herself for the weird feeling thereafter. It was like there was a stream of cold water flowing through her head, front to back. It was decidedly unpleasant but she bore with it.

"There.. she should wake up soon." Keishin stated as he finished working, after about three hours of non-stop work. He noticed everyone else was now unconscious and went into the kitchen to get a soda..

Two hours later, Seimei woke up feeling decidedly groggy. She looked around uncomprehendingly. The last thing she remembered was Keishin picking her up..

"Good morning sleepy head." It wasn't Keishin who had greeted her, he had long since given up on waiting for her to wake up and went to sleep himself. It was ten o'clock in the morning, and Emiko was the one who had greeted her, wearing a pair of pajamas. She handed Seimei a warm cup of cocoa, and walked over beside Keishin who had a small pile of soda cans next to him. "He drinks them when he's upset." Was her only remark as she went about collecting them into a recycling bin nearby.

"Where's Hikari?"

Emiko pointed to Hikari, laying on the now set up angelic layer table, before carrying the bundle of cans to the nearby trash bag and tossing them in, neatly tying it, and placing it in a recycling bin just outside the door.

Seimei looked over to where Emiko pointed and saw Hikari was asleep on the angelic layer table, before she jumped sideways because Chiisai had woken up and tried to drop kick her as a good morning greeting. While Seimei was spared as the small angel stumbled.. someone else wasn't so fortunate.

Keishin woke up when he noticed the small figure unceremoniously placed on his nose. Chiisai had missed and hit him instead of Seimei. He slurred something that translated as "Morning". Keishin then got up and left the room. About a minute later, the smell of breakfast foods permeated the air.

Emiko seemed to ponder this for a second before rushing into the kitchen. Soon, arguments filled the air and Keishin walked in, sighing exaggeratedly.

About a minute after Keishin woke up and morning left following the smell of breakfast. Chiisai seemed to think about it for a second before running after him. While Seimei ,who did not feel like eating, sat down in front of the angelic layer table that Hikari was asleep on. Suddenly, she held her head. '_Achk, it hurts! Hn, wait a minute.._'

"Where'd that table even come from?!"


	13. Keishin's Latest Scheme

**Disclaimer- Angelic Layer & Chobits do not belong to the authors of this story. This is written for recreational purposes with no material profit gained.**

_AN (Rimshooter): Yeah, we had a long wait this time, eh? This chapter was originally one chapter called Weakness, but it's been split into two, the second half has been cut out. Ah, what else did I want to say? Canon. That's right, canon. I'm still trying to incorporate more canon into the story, but it's rather difficult for met as I'm stuck with writing canon parts. In fact, the only parts Hime (Tae) writes involve Seimei, Chisai, Hikari, and the cameo deuses that Keishin/Teramora fight. Though she's working on incorporating another character.. I'm pretty sure there was another thing I wanted to talk about, but I'm having trouble focusing right now.. Tae's probably had to deal with any messages or reviews about the story. She's said all she has to say there._

_Ah, that's what it was! Look back at the first chapter. See that mention of a role playing site? Me and Hime are its only active members. This story consists of the various things we role-play there. Want to see the story as it's being written without modification? Check my bio on fan-fiction and you should see the link. (Chapters before this one are all in a bin you may or may not be able to access.) Let me see if Tae has anything to say. Hey, that rhymes! Yeah, if anyone thinks that Teramora knocked this person out way too fast.. According to the mechanics I've figured from the upgrades he's received between chapters, he does around 100 HP per hit. As for the incantations, they activate a pre-programmed series of actions in the scenario, making it less strenuous for Keishin to manipulate them. Plus, they're more 'dramatic' lol._

_Oh, here's a little curve-ball, how many people here think Teramora needs to 'get a personality'?_

_AN (Taeniaea): I'm not one of many words ;P. Next chapters ready, but won't be posted for a while._

Unknown Reviewer: Sorry for not responding in so long. As for why it's "Maybe too short"... well, it's quite possible you just got your explanation above. Assuming you're still reading it, which we doubt.

**EDIT**- The next chapter is NOT ready as of this one's publish, as the chapter we were going to use we have decided to cut out.

**Chapter 13: ** Keishin's Latest Scheme

* * *

"Where'd that table come from?" Seimei asked in confusion.

Keishin face-palmed. "You remember that box I had under my arm?"

"Well, come to think of it, I don't really remember very much of last night.." Seimei was looking down at her feet.

"Well, at any rate, the box contained the layer over there." Keishin said, not pressing the subject.

"Can we have an angelic fight please?"

"Again!?" Keishin asked incredulously.

"Yup!"

"No." He said, ending the discussion.

"Well.. what happened last night?" Seimei asked.

Last night?" Keishin looked a little suspicious for a second. "Oh, nothing. You just had a faint spell. The doctor said that they were to be expected. I guess the match really tired you out." Humming sounded from the kitchen, and Keishin looked to the door. His eyes shown with affection, "She never lets me cook; you know. She refuses to let _anyone_ else cook."

"What are you doing today?" Seimei continued.

"I'm not really doing anything today. The tournament's been canceled, there's supposed to be a bad thunderstorm later on. Misaki left earlier, that leaves you, me, and Emiko to decide what to do."

"You care about your sister a lot don't you, Keishin?" asked Seimei while picking up her Angels _'What happened last night? If I had a fainting spell, how did I end up in Keishin's house? Wouldn't he have taken me to the doctor's.._'

Suddenly, Keishin stood up and snapped his fingers. "I know what we're going to do today!"

"What are we doing, then?" Seimei asked while setting Chisai and Hikari down on a chair.

"We're going to do Angelic Layer, with a small twist." Keishin said, before rushing over to the Layer and tinkering with one of its programs.

Emiko walked in and set a plate beside him on the floor, handing another to Seimei before sitting down with her own. As Emiko picked up the utensil on the plate, she raised the obvious question. "What's he doing?"

"I think he's setting up an angelic fight.." Seimei replied, tapping Chisai on the head to wake her up.

Keishin overheard their conversation from across the room, "Not quite.."

**Several minutes later..**

"Done!" Keishin announced, excitedly. "If you want to join in, just throw your angel on the layer.." As he said this, the layer shifted into a city, a plateau in the center with a cathedral on it. What was surprising, however, was the beings moving about in the city. Keishin had simulated 'NPC' angels, in an interactive city! "Things will be explained as you go. If you want, you can even swap to your angel's perspective, like in the internationals."

Emiko leaned in, "You made another scenario!" Keishin nodded, "That's right. What's best.." He shifted a pair of glasses that he did not previously have on causing them to catch the light in a peculiar way, ".. is that you can even make your own simulated angel as if you were playing with an angel, but didn't actually have one." Keishin put on a terminal and tossed Teramora into the layer, as the sun set in the city.

"So it's a battle simulation?" Seimei asked**. **Chiisai climbed onto her shoulder with a look on her face that seemed to say '_Finally, another fight! Now I can get that no-wit doll back!_' Hikari snuck up behind Chisai with Chisai's previously discarded mallet and knocked her over the head with it, sending her into Seimei's lap. "Ite.." (1)

"It can be.." Keishin said noncommittally It seemed like he was busy controlling Teramora on the layer. Teramora was walking through on of the streets, heading down a ramp. The NPC seemed to be giving him a wide birth.

Emiko leaned forward after his explanation, "Cool! Can I try?"

"Sure," Keishin replied.

As Emiko celebrated, Keishin waited for her to calm down before explaining how it would work. "Just put on the Angel Visor, you should be able to mentally envision your angels, its abilities.." But Keishin couldn't finish as Emiko was already wearing the visor and making the virtual angel.

"So can I join in the simulation. Personally?" Seimei said, as Chisai and Hikari leaped and climbed (respectively) onto the layer.

Sighing as Emiko continued to make her angel. Keishin answered Seimei's question, "Theoretically, since both your angels can act of their own 'will' you could make a virtual copy of yourself, like an angel. Since I've set up the same programs as the international visors, meaning you can act from the viewpoint of your virtual self."

"Okay.." Seimei said, as she did a quick job of making her own avatar. A few seconds later, her virtual self appeared on a street on the other side of the street Teramora was on, wearing a black tunic, with a black visor, holding a staff much like the one Chiisai uses.

Chiisai and Hikari showed up about that time, coming from opposite ends of the street, with Chiisai coming from the left and Hikari coming from the right, still holding Chiisai's hammer.

Keishin noticed Teramora's predicament, as he was surrounded on three sides by his rival's forces. Since Keishin was controlling Teramora directly, like Seimei was her virtual copy. So, it wasn't all that surprising for those who noted this when Teramora sweat-dropped at his predicament. '_I feel like something bad is about to happen._' Any actions taken by the party were interrupted when Emiko finished her angel and materialized it behind Teramora, who turned around in surprise at the sudden presence. Emiko's angel appeared, with braided blond hair, wearing a white outfit with shoulder pads and vest, as well as a skirt, leggings, and long-sleeved shirt under it. There was a halberd strapped to her back.

"Hello." The angel, Sai,(2) said simply after finishing materialization. Around them, the virtual pedestrians took no notice.

"I didn't program them to notice our entry into the layer. That's the only thing they'll ignore, though.

Seeing that nothing horrible was about to happen, Keishin took charge of the situation. "So, what do you guys want to do first?" Since Keishin wasn't speaking through Teramora, they all heard his voice in their ear as if through telepathy.

Seimei sweat-dropped at Emiko's angel and the fact that Hikari still had its hammer. "You know.." She said, raising her voice, "we should team up. There's no telling what kind of nasty surprises Keishin put in here.

Chiisai growled a little at the statement, but didn't give any other opinion on the matter, while Hikari agreed, "No one protects Seimei and Chiisai but me!"

As if on cue, and perhaps it was, several screams broke out and people began running up the ramp of the street. Chasing after them were knights clad in obsidian black armor that only covered their torso, forearms, and forelegs. Their faces were hidden by black helmets. The knights wielded swords with red blades and obsidian hilts, to complete the theme. Oddly, under the armor they were baggy white clothes that were strapped in place. The few members of town garrison, which were wearing silver chain mail and holding regular swords, tried to hold back the knights, but they were being cut down rapidly due to their lack of numbers.

It didn't take long for Keishin to react as Teramora began speaking, "Glass set. Art 1: Frozen Tide." From where he had traced a small circle in the air with his baton, a torrent of glass shards sprang forth. The shards slammed into a group of five knights that had just finished off their garrison opponents. They had no chance as the shards pierced through their armor and turned them into pincushions on the ground. Before Teramora could attack again, he had to jump to the side to avoid a trio of blue blasts that left burn marks on the ground. "You're pretty strong." He looked up to see a red-headed girl dressed in a blue kung-fu outfit, with a smoking plasma cannon on her left shoulder, and a blade tied to her right arm. "It looks like you'll be my opponent. 'Are you ready?'" With that another trio of blasts was fired.

Emiko reacted quickly as well. She signaled Sai, her angel, to attack, and Sai did with gusto. The virtual angel charged the black soldiers, having drawn her halberd upon their arrival. She swung, and cut two of them in half. Sai stayed back, supporting the garrison with her pole-arm's long reach. However, the angel soon had to jump back as a sword, tied to a chain, embedded itself into the ground where she had been standing. Sai turned to see an young woman with dark blue hair tied into a bun, dressed in a maroon outfit with a tanned vest. Her new opponent smiled, "It looks like I might have a little fun. 'Let's try not to make this fight too quick, okay?'" With that,she yanked on a chain she was holding, pulling the sword out of the ground, before sending it flying again.

It looked like there were more than just 'grunts' to deal with. "Where's our opponent?" Seimei asked rhetorically, feeling a just little left out.

Just as Chisai said, "Don't push your luck." Something rather large slammed into the ground behind them, creating a crater shrouded in a cloud of dust and debris. Out of the cloud, a huge iron fist came flying, striking out at Hikari, who was standing closest to it. The smoke cleared to reveal a huge, bald man with iron fists and armored limbs, wearing a green tank top on the only part of his body that wasn't armored.

Meanwhile, Teramora dodged the trio of blasts sent at him.. again. Deciding this was tiresome, Keishin activated Teramora's skates, and the impassive angel sped up. He raced at his opponent, whipping out his baton as he landed next to his opponent as she herself set down after hovering in the air for a bit. Before she could react, he hit her across the temple with his baton and she was out of it on the ground before you could say 'blink'.

Sai wasn't having any such luck, however. She was barely dodging her opponent's jouhyou. Every time she dodged the blade's strike, it seemed her assailant had already retraced it and sent it at her again. This time, the weighted end came around in quick succession after an attack, and wrapped around her right arm. Eager for the kill, her opponent moved in on Sai, wrapping her up with the chain. Teramora saw this. Quickly, he recited the required technique's activation, "Glass Set. Art 2- Deadly Shards."

Three large glass fragments materialized in the air over Sai's opponent. "Strike!" All three rushed at the opponent at once, and she was forced to drop the chain in order to dodge the three shards that embedded themselves where she had just been standing.

Back with Seimei's group, Chisai charged the giant, pulling back her right fist for a vicious punch. Meanwhile, Hikari tried to get the giant from behind with her hammer as Seimei watched the fight, trying to make a strategy.

Braki moved his right arm at Chisai as she charged him, and her punch's force dissipated harmlessly into the heavily armored appendage. Even as this happened he attempted to swat Hikari aside with his other arm, but she deftly flew over the clumsy attack. While this was going on, a trio of black knights rushed at Seimei from behind her, left of her, and right of her, but she ducked under their swings, which were all diagonal slashes (thus they collided with each other), and activated some claws in her right glove, gutting the one to her right before dodging behind him.

Meanwhile, further down the street, the jouhyou user cursed under her breath at having to abandon her main weapon. So, returning the favor of the shards, the woman removed the rods from her bun, letting her hair fall freely about her face. "Weapon Mastery: Enkaku Shihai!" With that, she threw the rods at Teramora, who dodged them, only for them to redirect themselves and fly at Teramora again. Meanwhile, Sai struggled to escape her bindings as her opponent stayed well out of Teramora's way, moving he hands with every change in direction of the rods, like a puppet master.

One of the nearby garrison members who hadn't died yet noticed her predicament, and ran over, starting to untie her.

At the fight against the giant, Chisai ducked under the giant's arm, rushing at him to hit him in the gut with her shadow kick. Unfortunately for Chisai, as she brought her foot up to his groin, he brought his knee up to her head, and sent her flying back several feet. However, he couldn't stop Hikari, and her hammer slammed into his back. Sufficiently angered, he stamped his still raised foot into the ground and turned around to swat her out of the sky with his right fist, leaving his back unexposed as a pair of knights took Chisai's state on the ground as an opportunity for an easy kill and rushed her, only to be disappointed severely when she rolled onto her stomach, pushed off the ground and dashed out of their way.

Back with Seimei, the two remaining knights recovered when they saw their comrade die and rushed at Seimei again, one of them aiming for an uppercut, while the other swung at her head, but Seimei jumped back to avoid the knight's strikes, then she jumped over them while they recovered and rushed at the giant with her staff. She struck the back of his left knee.

As all this was going on, Teramora dodged yet another strike from the rods. This time they came from two different directions, his opponent was getting tricky... and annoying. "Glass set. Art 2- Deadly Shard!" A single glass shard appeared, even as the rods rushed Teramora again. Just before they hit.. "STRIKE!" The glass flew at his opponent at a phenomenal rate, digging itself into her right shoulder. Gasping, she fell to the ground clutching her shoulder, and her rods missed Teramora by inches as they lost momentum. Sai stood up when the garrison member finally untied her. With a brief word of thanks, she turned to see her opponent was defeated.

She took in the rest of the battlefield, and saw that Seimei and her angels were still fighting the last members of the enemy. So, she started to them, but Teramora stopped her and Keishin's voice sounded in her ear. "They've got it."

As Sai nodded, Hikari dodged the giant's clumsy strike, albeit barely. She dove at him with her hammer, swinging at his chin with an uppercut, this time. A little ways away, Chisai dispatched the knights with a gut blow to one, and a savage strike to the temple of the other.

When Seimei's staff hit the back of his knee, the giant stumbled. The shift in movement was enough to throw off his arm when he tried to block Hikari, resulting in her having a clear shot. Her hammer met his chin, and he fell over backwards.

Meanwhile, Teramora summoned a pair of ice shards and sent them flying into the knights that had attacked Seimei, clearing the area of enemies. He walked up to Seimei, with Sai behind him. "Well, that was entertaining. Knights slaughtered, commanders incapacitated, city safe.." As Keishin said this the simulation shut down, turning their surroundings into a large, empty white field.

"That's it?" Seimei asked, though it was more of a statement than a question.

"Yeah," Keishin said as Teramora scratched the back of his head, mimicking his deus, "it's all I had time to do. I should have part two done next week. It'd be faster, but I have other projects." Keishin's eyes flitted to the corner of the room, where there was a vaguely human-shaped object covered in a sheet.

"It's gonna be really cool!" Emiko stated enthusiastically. As Emiko was speaking, Keishin had removed his visor, Emiko followed suit, waving at Sai who waved back, disappearing when the visor was off.

"Okay.." Seimei started, "I really need to go home. When I leave it alone too long, my friend uses her key to get in and re-arrange my stuff.."

With that, she left.


End file.
